This situation sucks and was something I would have been willing to see through. But after reading the thread from Madison this morning I’ve decided to cancel my Floatplane subscription. While the accusations she makes are currently accusations, they’re pretty damning and worth taking seriously in case they are more than allegations. I await LMG’s response to her thread, as I feel that will be the deciding factor in whether or not I continue to consume and support anything LMG does going forward.
On the Floatplane thing, I am a bit worried for DankPods, who put a lot of backing into Floatplane after he got screwed over by Twitch. This whole thing might have some collateral damage towards the other creators on there, including him. Was considering subscribing to Floatplane for him and his drum streams before this.
DankPods is the only reason why I’d consider using Floatplane, but I’ve already been a Patron of his for a long time and could just up my tier sub if I wanted to support him more, which I may do if this effects his streams.
Ha, Nebula is not the answer, either. It’s a gated community that doesn’t even have a way to sign up as an uploader. They expect you to make it on YouTube first before they consider moving to their network, and then you’re doomed to constantly advertise for Nebula for the rest of your career.
I may not agree with a lot of things Madison does as a content creator, but what she’s described in that thread is absolutely egregious. This goes so far beyond “trust me bro”, and is already bathing in the gas that the company is actively lighting under them. Makes me wonder what kind of NDA and contract all of them have, to keep it hush-hush. I’m worried for the people there
what she’s described in that thread is absolutely egregious
*If true and complete.
None of us were there, none of us know what happened, none of us knows the context of anything discussed. There’s a universe where everything she described is misinterpreted banter and she’s just an overly sensitive whiny zoomer. There’s also a universe where everything she described is an understatement to the unfathomable conditions she may have been subjected to, and Linus is a prototypical millennial edgelord piece of shit who can’t read a room, and gets off on belittling those under his domain.
It’s important, I think, to not be impulsively reactionary towards individual accusations. Doing so disincentives discourse and transparency. I’m going to let this play out for a bit before I make any decisions with my wallet. If Madison deserves the benefit of the doubt, so does LMG.
A former employee shitting on their employer during a scandal to draw media attention has been the oldest trick in the book. If more stories come forward or others corroborate the individual claims, it’s worth notice. Until then, all I see is someone who took a high pressure job, couldn’t hack it, and now they’re trying to cash in on the negative experience for media attention.
One party versions are always .... tricky. If this was the case then people that support her need to step up and talk. It is hard to belive a company with such ethics also had good enough enviroment for a colleague to transition and publicly anounce it to the world. Something is off...
Exactly. Something doesn’t smell right. If she wants to corroborate her story, she can start by showing her ER report for the supposed incident where she self-harmed to get out of work. That would be an easy paper trail to share and since she’s already disclosed that information, she wouldn’t be giving anything else up.
Words themselves have no value in these instances.
Until there’s actual evidence put forward (and not just her word), I’ll happily defer pulling out the guillotine and grabbing my pitch fork.
I get the community as a whole is rightfully shitty with how LMG has handled themselves over the last week, but I’m certainly not taking her accusations alone at face value, regardless of how abhorrent they are
Absolutely, the criticism from gamers Nexus was fair and earned by LMG, but these allegations are not only completely separate from the issue with quality, they’re completely unsubstantiated. Should she start corroborating her story with things like the ER report from her reported incident of self-harm, or other employees confirm her story and are willing to state that they actually witness these accusations, that would be another story.
I just find that screwdriver to be the most pretentiously bad product. Still a product that’s half as good as something from Klein or wiha, or Milwaukee, or Greenlee, for three times the price. He put all that money into a designing a cheap but overpriced Chinese piece of junk, when there are already great screwdrivers used by professionals for years and years. Linus was so arrogant he didn’t even think that somebody’s already made a superior product with established tooling. But no, he has to reinvent the wheel and design a screwdriver nobody’s asked for
I’ve used one, and it actually is pretty good. For comparison, I have a Megapro Automotive (211R1C36RD) screwdriver. I like the ratchet and shaft knurling of the LTT more, but the smaller bits are a bit annoying (though the smaller handle size because of them is nice). Overall, it’s not a bad screwdriver, and even though it is too expensive for me, it’s another good product option in case other brands’ tools don’t fit someone’s needs.
To be clear, LTT is plenty problematic, but I don’t think “making a screwdriver” is one of their problems.
I’ve done a lot of low-voltage as well as high-voltage work through the years. So I have tool sets and screwdriver sets for low-voltage stuff, another set for high voltage stuff which is a lot of Klein and Green Lee and another set for mechanical work which is a lot of Wright Tools because I do all my own vehicle maintenance in my shop. And even another set with JIS tips specifically for Japanese motorcycles which are Vessels. Basically, I have a lot of different screwdriver sets that specialize for many different purposes. I also have sets for taking apart smaller electronics. I say all this only to give insight to my experience with tools so that I can say the next bit…
The LTT bit driver is overpriced garbage. I would re-iterate what the other person has already stated… there is nothing the LTT screwdriver does that something like a Wiha or Felo driver wouldn’t do for 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of it. Also, bit drivers save space which are great for toolbags and working on the go, but if I were to be doing consistent work on a bench there is no chance in hell that I would pick up a bit driver over a real screwdriver set.
It’s price is the most glaring problem. The tool by itself is not garbage, but when you factor the price, it’s most definitely garbage for $70, you can buy much better. It’s on par with $20-$30 drivers from companies that have been building tools for decades, stand by their products, and in many cases, are industry standards in tool sets. So why would anyone pay 2-3x the price for something like the LTT screwdriver? And trust me, I get why the cost of it could be so much higher, R+D costs money, but that again goes back to the point the other person already stated, “Linus was so arrogant he didn’t even think that somebody’s already made a superior product with established tooling. But no, he has to reinvent the wheel and design a screwdriver nobody’s asked for” These other companies like Klein and Green Lee and Wiha and Felo know how to do tools. They have their processes nailed down, so they have better quality for far less money.
I don’t know why so many people got boners over it and didn’t want to point this out but I think that shows just how much power and protection Linus wielded with his rabid, cult-like followers. And that to me goes to show it took a lot of courage for GN to release his video, and all the more courage for Madison to finally tell her story. I’m very glad they both did though.
Good point, but I see it as simply another option. I would rather have an expensive option that is overall similar but has certain advantages, such as a low ratchet force, than not have that option, even if I won’t buy something that expensive. At worst, some people for whom money is no object might find it useful, or other companies might be encouraged to improve their designs to better compete. It’s good for customers to have more options, even if the option doesn’t suit everyone.
That’s called back drag, it’s really not important in a screwdriver. I think ratcheting screwdrivers are just really gimmicky, are more of a hindrance in most cases. Maybe you can enlighten me, but really there are two main reasons here for that opinion.
It’s faster to spin the shaft with your fingers on a fixed screwdriver than it is to ratchet on the handle to turn in bolts. This is especially true for smaller bolts.
Many times to get threads to line up it’s easiest to turn the bolt counter-clockwise until the threads align and fall into place before you start turning them clockwise into the threads. You couldn’t do this with a really low back drag, or it would be cumbersome to change the ratcheting function on it. A fixed screwdriver just seems all around more efficient and faster.
So what benefit does a ratcheting screwdriver offer? It’s slower and it’s cumbersome to have to change it back and forth just to change directions. And because it has a ratcheting mechanism, it will fail faster under less forces.
I use a ratcheting screwdriver in my job at a computer repair shop. For smaller screws, I use a precision screwdriver, in which I do just spin the shaft with the top of the screwdriver in my palm, but I sometimes need the larger screwdriver for more force.
Often true, and I often do that on my ratcheting screwdriver. However, it’s faster still to use two hands, one on the handle and one on the shaft, and alternate them. While the handle is ratcheting back, the shaft continues turning, so it ends up screwing or unscrewing twice as fast (or at least faster; I know that moving your hand is pretty fast). Also, when working on a screw that requires more force, the ratchet allows me to apply that force without repositioning my hand frequently, again making it faster.
Again, I totally agree. This is especially important on small screws or when screwing into plastic, which I work with often. That’s a good point about how low back drag (thanks for the name) makes it more difficult. I was thinking that it would make it easier when screwing into certain materials that change their resistance as I screw, but maybe the back drag I have on my current screwdriver is a good amount.
Yeah, if you don’t like ratcheting screwdrivers, you definitely won’t like the LTT screwdriver. That’s fair. I think they make me faster, but it’s up to personal preference.
People buying this haven’t worked for a mid to large sized company. This is internal corporate coolaid bullshit. Nothing ever comes from this lip service. It’s just cringe
I was just thinking about how theres almost no gradient between what makes you a “quirky and fun small business” which they want to act like and “oh shit better put on our IBM corporate hats and make another video”
Personally felt it was the right thing, and earned some respect back from me. They need to address Madison’s accusations separately (which are damning), but they certainly had positive movement with the points raised by the community / GN.
Each of the department heads outlined their shortcomings and how they were being addressed. It felt genuine and sincere, and certainly not the generic bullshit you usually get from a corporate PR team on damage control. I hope they follow through enacting those plans, and it has a positive impact to both their quality and working environments.
The only bit I hated was Linus’ section (and this is meant to be a criticism, not a personal attack).
He opened up with a joke that Luke will have a lot to do curbing his (Linus) own behaviour, had a brief moment of sincerity, but went back to immediately defending himself and their actions. He didn’t fully acknowledge what his “emotional” response actually did, nor a personal response/apology to both GN/Billet Labs for it. There was no real acknowledgment he will address his own shortcomings. It honestly felt like someone who acknowledges he’s wrong (purely based on number of internal members telling him he’s in the wrong), but doesn’t agree nor accept it.
I mean the monetizing of the video was in pretty poor taste. They plugged they’re merchandise multiple times. They joked about the video being sponsored twice. All of which screams, we don’t care about what we did just don’t take away our money.
The video was still then being defensive.
They never apologized to GN or Hardware Unboxed.
Sex jokes too enlight of sexual harassment and employee mistreatment claims.
They rushed the video out too, it’s a culmination of most of the things wrong with lmg. If they had taken their time with this and taken it seriously I would have probably given them points and been very surprised, but this was absolutely bs pr. Totally unapologetic and insincere. Even if they do change anything I don’t believe it’s because they want it, itll be because they’ll be out $$$.
They also need to reconsider they’re hr, pretty significant conflict of interest there… then again hr isn’t there for employees protection anyway…
Call me a fanboy but this is not the worst response.
A few things that still annoy me ofc:
Madison’s concerns were not addressed (she JUST wrote it, so fair enough, but that shit needs to be addressed)
everything sounds a bit scripted. Shit, just let them say what concerns them and the specifics of what they actually wanna address. Like give examples, so we know that you guys get it.
Linus blaming others sticks out. I wanna give him the benefit of the doubt and say he’s doing it unconsciously but it really bothers me and I hope it’s just truckloads of stress that he’ll be able to work through. This is not meant as an insult, but it sounds to me he should get a therapist to talk himself through the feelings. It helped me, and I can smell the pent up emotions through the screen.
It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. Let’s see what comes in response in the next while.
Also whoever hurt, degraded and ruined Madison’s mental health fuck you. I know it won’t happen, but if you read this Madison, what you went through was wrong and unfair and fuck everyone who hurt you, you did the right thing and now that you’re gone, life will improve. If you got through your worst nightmare, you will easily get through the next weeks.
For the scripting, that honestly makes sense for it to be scripted. You can proof and clear what is said beforehand instead of in post w/ retakes. Im not really invested in all this but it does make sense to me.
You know there is something wrong in an individual when said individual resorts to emotion/“imjusthumantism” and other type of fallacies to answer facts and logic.
I think there are a few instances where mentioning your own inability or failures are ok. One would be where it’s qualified with like, appropriate measures to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Like if I say I’m flawed and not perfect, it makes sense to think something like this might happen again and hey here are the mechanisms or things in place to ensure my non-perfectness can be addressed and mitigated so as to cause the least amount of harm for others (at my own expense).
Of course this is not at all what was done or what tends to be done :/
Things are not looking good for linus, especially now that an ex-employee is making accusations about terrible working conditions, sexisim, and harassment of all types..
I like seeing articles about cool gadgets and science pop up in my all feed, but this instance just keeps belaboring some youtube channel I dont care about. any ideas for some replacements because this place is getting kinda lame
they’re one of the biggest tech channels on youtube, and the biggest gaming focused tech channel. A lot of people looked up to them, including myself. In a few days I’m sure the discussion will die down.
They are least released a video outlining their plan going forward, that’s immensely better than other times where they’ve stuck their head in the sand. Be keen to see how this one pans out
But this video was after a long nasty, emotional rant on the LTT forums. Also after trying to claim compensation had been agreed between Billet labs, all while doubling down in reasons why it’d not changed the outcome of the result of the video.
Yeah, and the video made it clear that Linus needs to get out of the way of the business growing, which is what everyone was trying to address. How well that actually worked is up to you. Personally I’m one for actions backing up words. Admitting there needs to be a change is a good start.
I think the Madison thing that has come up since the video has seen enough speculation. At this point it is up to LMG to do what is right provided any further action is required.
This video is odd to me. The thumbnail of the video is of Linus but you don’t see him in the video until almost the end. Even though technically Linus is no longer the CEO of the company the responsibility still falls on him because bulk of the controversy was created by his terrible response post on their forum. Also the tone of this video is very off putting. The awkward half joking “we’re human so feel bad for us” tone by whole bunch people other than Linus feels evasive. I think LMG is treating this as a PR problem but clearly it’s a serious systemic internal problem and I don’t see how the company culture can be changed when Linus is still very hands on. Maybe I’m being cynical here but it feels like they’ll just go back to business as usual after this blows over in a week.
They have said there will be a third party audit/inspection of which the results will be published. I am a little hopeful, though remain skeptical.
Also the allegations didn’t squarely fall on Linus (though I guess the end-responsibility does lie with him). After his blow-up post on the forums I don’t have faith he by himself will correct the ship. In that regard I’m also a little hopeful about their new CEO.
Did any one see the pinned comment where they say turned off monetization after community feedback? as if this video should be monitized in the first place lol man this does not feel right
Fair point, I thought about that too but if it were me and my reputation on the line, I’d make a main point of the video. Just as gamer nexus did.
Making a vid about being less careless and then being careless.
All that said, when I was posting vids, there was a full screen YouTube made me go through to set monitization and ad placement before proceeding to a separate screen for posting
Seems like kind of a straw that broke the camel’s back situation.
A company sent them a one-of-a-kind prototype cooling device and the video card it was designed for to have it reviewed or whatever. The reviewer misplaced the GPU but was under deadline to produce their video, so they used a different video card, and the cooler (as should be expected) didn’t function well, but they posted the negative review anyway. After the fuckup was pointed out, they put a very easy to miss “correction” on the video. People caught on that this happens alot, and started to question the value of the content, given so many mistakes and easily missed corrections. This also extended to people questioning the bias of their reviews on products related to companies they have partnerships with or competing brands.
Additionally, despite being asked to return the device and agreeing to do so, they later sold it at a charity auction. This measurably harmed the creator and it is unknown who purchased it (people speculate it was a competitor), apparently some compensation was worked out however.
Last I’ve seen, the former social media manager posted a pretty scathing recounting of time at the company. It included alot of events that indicate this was a predatory and hostile work environment, including sexual harassment.
Some small corrections here (as I understand them):
In the video, they actually mentioned that Billet’s device was intended for a 3090, but “they (Billet Labs) think it should work with a 4090 too.” Unsure if anyone from Billet ever commented on that, but that seemed to be LMG’s understanding.
Additionally, the device was sent to LMG without an expectation of return. They asked for it back after the poor review, but when it was originally sent over, there were no strings attached.
They did find who the device was sold to, and it was just a random person at LTX (LMG’s tech expo), not a competitor. Sounds like they auctioned off a lot of random stuff from videos there, and it was likely mismanagement rather than malice that caused them to sell it.
The Madison situation is obviously shitty, but I think there’s a big distinction between her experiences involving sexual harassment and the “grind mindset” culture that LMG seems to have. Both are problems, but one is obviously larger than the other. I believe the new CEO stated they’re going to bring in external investigators regarding the sexual harassment claims.
When it comes to them rushing things to keep up an unreasonable video schedule, I think that’s a valid criticism, but in no way do I feel like it’s some kind of line in the sand that can’t ever be forgiven. I also think that GN probably should have asked for comment before releasing this kind of criticism against arguably their largest competitor.
Not defending LMG’s mistakes, but GN’s opinion that you should not ask for comment doesn’t hold water.
GN definitely has an agenda here. He made several comments that made it quite clear he’s resentful of LTT’s success.
While I don’t think anything he reported is false, it’s all wrapped in a narrative that relies on implications. He certainly makes a whole lot of hay about a few small mistakes and heavily implies LTT is in the pockets of their sponsors and a conspiracy theory that LTT is only successful because of some connections and preferred treatment by YouTube.
He’s very much trying to establish a narrative that LMG is wildly corrupt and undeserving of their success. However, a lot of it comes across as sour grapes.
Billet Labs sent them a 3090ti to test with and LMG lost it before they filmed the review. They comment on the GPU being wrong in the video. .
BL also commented on the video explaining why it would perform poorly with the 4090.
Someone at LMG agreed to send it back before they sold it at auction. Then that didn’t happen and there was no apology or attempt to make it right until the GN video came out.
This doesn’t completely match what GN reported or what GN said Billet told them.
In the video, they actually mentioned that Billet’s device was intended for a 3090, but “they (Billet Labs) think it should work with a 4090 too.”
According GN Billet said that they told ltt that it might work for the other card but that it wasn’t tested.
Additionally, the device was sent to LMG without an expectation of return. They asked for it back after the poor review, but when it was originally sent over, there were no strings attached.
This I haven’t heard before but I do find that highly unlikely. Most companies aren’t willing to permanently part with a prototype considering how expensive they tend to be, trade secrets and the low number they have. Billet labs are apparently a two person start up making it even more unlikely.
and it was likely mismanagement rather than malice that caused them to sell it.
I don’t think personally that it was a question of malice as such but most of the criticism from GN was based on LTT being mismanaged where speed was more important than being correct. So still not a good look for them.
I also think that GN probably should have asked for comment before releasing this kind of criticism against arguably their largest competitor.
GN responded to this in a follow-up. I think they said something along the lines that they don’t do it for other companies either. I’m personally a bit divided. Most of the information presented was factual and not of the nature “he said she said” with the exception of the Billet question. The size difference (especially when in similar scenes) could also be seen as a reason not to reach out so that the story isn’t buried by the larger companies reach and resources.
Important considerations, especially considering Linus first response where I felt he played around with semantics a lot. What I like about GN is that they always seem to back things up with references.
This measurably harmed the creator and it is unknown who purchased it (people speculate it was a competitor), apparently some compensation was worked out however.
Last I heard from Billet via GN was that they didn’t get the offer regarding compensation until the same time Linus posted his first written response, so way late. At that point they hadn’t agreed to anything. So a play of semantics for Linus?
Linus always came off to me as one of those people who shouldn’t be mangement. Idk, just watching him in videos feels frustrating, and he seemed to belittle his employees in a joking/non-joking manner.
Some of the other “techs” do seem to be very knowledgeable, and i feel bad for them to have to work under a man child.
He seems like a kid making videos with his friends. Not realizing he is an adult making videos with professionals whose likelihood depends on his company.
Yeah, I saw that in several videos and it made me uncomfortable. He’d say rude things in a way that didn’t actually come across like he was joking. If it was just a friend thing, I could maybe understand it, but there was a big power imbalance. Can’t imagine what it’d be like to be on the receiving end of how he can act.
Add comment